Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-11-23

I No more unique, distinctive, and ct the
same time popular character stands before
the people to-day than Ella Wheeler
wilcox.
Born in g Wisconsin village some thirty
odd years ago, when Wisconsin was not
much more than frontier state, without
Influential friends Or family, end without
money, she made for herself q name in
| literature which commanded attention
before she Was eighteen years old. To
ore who knows it in detail her history
western prairIe, she Is an ornament to
the most brilliant circles OF the metrop-
Oils
She had never seen an editor or literary
person and knew nothing Of the methods
of getting into print when, at fourteen,
she read her first production to the press.
The New York Mercury published these
childish efforts which were written in
prose and under cm-dG-plumes.
It declined the first poem she ever sent
for publication, and the editor sarcastic
ally advised her to "crush her ambitions
to be poet"
The W&verly Magazine has the honor
W JIG GliC AtSb " pISStAG EuS udti1G VI EllA
Wheeler to the public.
Frank Leslie sent her the first check
she ever received ct seventeen years of
age,
From that time to the present day she
has never swerved nor fsltered IN the
steady, hard climb toward success.
She never sent z manuscript in her life
FOR criticism ard never asked for aid or
t,-1} h..
During the last fifteen years Ella
Wheeler has probably been the most crit
icised, abused, praised, mieconstrued and
admired womsn in the literary world.
Without particle of effort to create q
sensation, everything she has in that
time written has had the effect Of stirring
up criticism.
Her writings seem TO be possessed Of a
certain something combustible in their
composition, that on striking outer air
invariably rends it with more or less Of
en- explosion.
Her first published book was "Drops of
Water" q collection of juvenile temper
snce verses. These were crude but filed
with the dramatic enthusiasm which has so
permeated her later work, and provoked
praise and censure in proportionate guam
titles from the contending forces On the
liquor question.
"ShelIs," little volume now out of
print, comes peXt.
"MauTinDe," by many considered her
finest work, and the famous Poems OF
Passion which set tie literary world on
fire. followed within three years of each
other.
Columns OF abuse and praise Items rid
iculing and eulogiZipg the latter volume
filed all the papers in the country.
Some of her friends urged her to sup
press the book after its first appearance,
but strong in the courage of her convic-
tons, she read the severe and unjust re-
views through tears, not unmixed with
smiles ct sight of the golden coins which
puuctusted the comments of the critics.
Many of these dollars were spent in
building home for aging parents, and
much OF the halo now surrounding this
remarkable womsn's life is the reflection
Of the generous deeds Of her early monied |
life.
Milwaukee people gave her sfbenefit" |
IN May, 1888, when she was made the sub |
lect OF speech by q United States Sena-
tor and was presented with china basket |
containing $500 in gold.
Long before her happy marriage in May,
1884, with the elegant and cultivated gem
Ileman who brought her TO the east, her
name was household word and she was
; welcome guest in the best circles of the |
,reS northeast.
To her rare genius were added unusual
,races of person. She was a brilliant
Ind taetful talzer, a good dancer, and q